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Fuck whatever we were playing, let's get ready for some goddamn DARK SUN

I guess! I'm in four of the nine scenes, but the way it's split up or something leaves me with that. Like they're doing the last two scenes on Mondays because I'm superdead by then, but they split the rest of the seven between the remaining three days in such a way that I have one or two scenes every day to work on. We'll see if it changes beyond that.

I'm in a small-cast play with two acts, each one of which is a continuous 45 min (or so) scene. I'm the lead and onstage for the entire thing... there's maybe like two minutes of the play where I'm not out there.

This play has like nine scenes, and despite being a lead, I'm only in four of them. No real monologuing, which is nice, and the first and third scene I'm in there is more than one other person on stage, so they're not too heavy for me.

This play has like nine scenes, and despite being a lead, I'm only in four of them. No real monologuing, which is nice, and the first and third scene I'm in there is more than one other person on stage, so they're not too heavy for me.

Nice. That's manageable and gives you a chance to glance at a script if you have an OH SHIT moment backstage

This play has like nine scenes, and despite being a lead, I'm only in four of them. No real monologuing, which is nice, and the first and third scene I'm in there is more than one other person on stage, so they're not too heavy for me.

Nice. That's manageable and gives you a chance to glance at a script if you have an OH SHIT moment backstage

Yeah, pretty much. The honeymoon and hospital scene are rather back to back, but hospital should be pretty easy, it's one of the short ones. If I forget my lines, whatever, the person playing my wife is a damn good improv lady, I can just ramble some misogyny at her for a while and exit stage left.

Seriously look at these lines. This is to my wife after she has just given birth and is in the hospital bed:

Everything OK? I]YOUNG WOMAN signs "no"[/I Now see here, my dear, you've got to brace up, you know! And- and face things! Everybody's got to brace up and face things! That's what makes the world go round. I know all you've been through but- I]YOUNG WOMAN signs "no"[/I Oh, yes I do! I know all about it! I was right outside all the time! I]YOUNG WOMAN makes violent gesture of "no." Ignoring[/I Oh yes! But you've got to brace up now! Make an effort! Pull yourself together! Start the uphill climb! Oh I've been down- but I haven't stayed down. I've been licked but I haven't stayed licked! I've pulled myself up by my own bootstraps, and that's what you've got to do! Will power! That's what conquers! Look at me! Now you've got to brace up! Face the music! Stand the gaff! Take life by the horns! Look it in the face! Having a baby's natural!

1. The rules need to be something I can explain to a new person in a couple minutes, and have them make a character swiftly. They need to be able to learn the basic rules and then immediately move to character creation needing only a clear idea in their mind of what kind of character they want to make.

2. The rules need to have a universal conflict resolution mechanic. That means attacking, damage, skill use, etc. all has to use the same kind of mechanic. An example of this is how Mutants & Masterminds uses rolling 1d20 vs a DC is 100% of how the game works. That sort of principle.

3. The system needs to be generic and usable in any setting and at nearly any power level.

4. The attributes, statistics, and skills of the system need to be abstract. They need to be the sort of thing players can create without looking through a massive list of what the game has already designed (Example: The Fate System used by Spirit of the Century).

5. The game needs to be light on derived values and differing manners of resistances, defenses, and factored attributes. I am sick of character sheets that look like tax forms.

Now, while there are many systems that exhibit many of the traits I am looking for, none really function for what I'd really want, so I'm exploring my options here.

What's wrong with Spirit of the Century? I haven't used it or any of the other super abstract systems, so I don't know how it doesn't fit these.

1. The rules need to be something I can explain to a new person in a couple minutes, and have them make a character swiftly. They need to be able to learn the basic rules and then immediately move to character creation needing only a clear idea in their mind of what kind of character they want to make.

2. The rules need to have a universal conflict resolution mechanic. That means attacking, damage, skill use, etc. all has to use the same kind of mechanic. An example of this is how Mutants & Masterminds uses rolling 1d20 vs a DC is 100% of how the game works. That sort of principle.

3. The system needs to be generic and usable in any setting and at nearly any power level.

4. The attributes, statistics, and skills of the system need to be abstract. They need to be the sort of thing players can create without looking through a massive list of what the game has already designed (Example: The Fate System used by Spirit of the Century).

5. The game needs to be light on derived values and differing manners of resistances, defenses, and factored attributes. I am sick of character sheets that look like tax forms.

Now, while there are many systems that exhibit many of the traits I am looking for, none really function for what I'd really want, so I'm exploring my options here.

What's wrong with Spirit of the Century? I haven't used it or any of the other super abstract systems, so I don't know how it doesn't fit these.

Spirit of the Century/the FATE system does some needlessly complicated things that make it tricky for new folks to wrap their heads around.

Skill pyramids and stuff like that.

Basically my guiding principle here is "I want to have a RPG system I can play with most of my friends". Some of my friends are experienced RPG players for whom a system like RISUS might be unfulfilling, while others are the sort of people who balk at the complexity (and in particular the dense character creation) of a system like Mutants & Masterminds or Dungeons & Dragons.

So all I'm looking to do is balance simplicity with depth. I'm not looking to make a realistic system, or one that can accurately simulate a virtual world or some such nonsense. I'd just like a halfway point between, say, RISUS and M&M.

FATE is pretty close to what I want, and about as close as anything else is, really. But I'm basically exploring other options in order to synergize together what I'm really looking for.

Of course it looks like you'd have to choose between adventure, space or fantasy for your basic setting. Unless you picked up all three core rulebooks.

I picked up D6 Space and D6 Fantasy for like 15 bucks each a while back. Mainly I wanted to see how the rules had advanced with the company sitting on the edge of bankruptcy.

D6 Adventure from what I can tell just uses Fantasy's Attributes with different names and a wider range of suggested skills. For that matter, Fantasy's Attributes mainly eliminates Star Wars/D6 Space's Mech and Tech and splits Dexterity and Perception into four (personal nimbleness vs deft use of aiming and steering, and sensory perception vs social skills, basically). Any one of these books should cover the essentials needed to run a game and adapt it for a different setting. I'll have to try out Fantasy and see how its Attribute system works in play eventually.

The spell system seems rather obtuse; it's got an original power-creation system using charts and it looks like all the really talented designers with an eye for streamlining only worked on Star Wars and have since left. The quality of the books' layouts are lousy and there's a few needlessly detailed new rules here and there. It looks a hell of a lot like the first SW 2nd Edition book from a decade earlier (black and white, mixed bag of art, dry text, not organized in an order that explains the rules effectively, no special use of highlighted paragraphs, rule examples or side notes), and reminds me why I never took an interest in TORG.

But in the end it just needs an experienced GM to digest the meat of the game and pass it on. I ran a D6 campaign for
a while earlier this year and all the players latched onto the system after the first session without looking through the books at all.